The longest night
by Sjeherazade
Summary: Because of a bad decision, Chiaki, Genta, Ryuunosuke and Takeru have to face their worst opponent ever... Mako ...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N **

**1. I don´t own anything **

**2. I don't use English as my first language and I have never visited an English-speaking country so my grammar can't be perfect.** **I appreciate good criticism as long as it leads somewhere – in other words – feel free to tell me that my grammar is awful but please tell me what's wrong too so I can do something about it. **

**23:58 **

It's very late at night and it is dark, very dark. But there is burning some candles inside, with flames that barely lights up the room, which makes the room seem eerie, almost ghostly.

Under a layer of blankets sit and lie four boys with pale faces and pure terror in their eyes. All of them trembles all over and tries to hide behind each other as far as they can. None of them dare take their eyes off the creature. A creature who wears a ghostly black hood over a white nightie, looking like an angel of death in the dark.

The boys are listening to every word the horrible creature says in its terrible voice, a voice that could bring the bravest man in the world to hide, and the message is not better but they continue to listen, ignoring the horrible meaning in the words. Their eyes are large with fear, they are trembling, cowering closer together and often they even stop breathing for several seconds, it's almost as if none of them dare to move.

Suddenly the door opens and the light in the ceiling lights. A girl enters the room. She looks a little tired when she understands what is going on in the room and sighs deeply when she hears what the black-hooded creature farthest in the room says. She stands like this for a few seconds.

"Kotoha, you shouldn't tell the boys things like that, this time of the night, you remember what happened last time?" Mako interrupts Kotoha in the middle of her story. Ryuunosuke who is sitting closest to the wall of the four boys looks up at Mako in the doorway.

"Relax Mako-chan, Kotohas stories are so vivid that we'll have nightmares if we do not know how it ends!" Takeru, Chiaki and Genta nods eagerly all three of them but Mako sees that all four are very faded.

"The thing is that you shouldn't have started listening at all," Mako says and looks at the four boys under their blankets, they all have their pajamas on so obviously they knew what time it was.

"We actually started two hours ago!" Chiaki said in defence, hoping to appease Mako but it didn't work out so well.

"Two hours? You cannot be serious! "She was standing there in the door, waiting for anyone to say something but nobody did. Finally, she sighed and turned to go, but before she closed the door behind her, she turned around. "Guys, remember, don't come to me crying later!"

When Mako closed the door everything first got very quiet for a few seconds then Takeru turned to Kotoha again.

"Kotoha continue, it's enthralling!"

Kotoha continues to tell the story from the point where she had been interrupted and Chiaki got up to turn the light off again.

Some time later Kotoha notices that all her listeners have fallen asleep. She smiles, and takes off her black blanket that she used as a disguise, the boys were quit cute when they slept. She went off to her room, leaving the guys sleeping where they are, still they had the blankets keeping them warm. It didn't take much time for Kotoha to fall asleep as well.

**02:28**

Chiaki starts to sleep restlessly, moving around in his sleep and screaming now and then without waking up.

Mako, sleeping in the next room hears him and wakes.

"What did I tell you ..." she mumbles and then she turns over on the other side and manages to get back to sleep. Imagine that she knew this would happen.

In his dream Chiaki were surrounded by a pack of nasty ghosts of unknown type, probably vampires, he believed. They came closer, he must do something. He must defend himself. They were so many of them, it was almost as if he was seeing double. How can he defend himself against them? He must try to get hold of one of them. He aims at one of their necks. Is he lucky he can get fixed one of them and then maybe the others will get scared and leave.

Chiaki attacked what seemed to be one of the ghosts necks. He got hold of one of them.

"DIE DRACULA DIE!" He yells in his sleep. He feels a huge relief, he did it, he didn't only succeed in taking a grip on one of them, he also scared the other ghosts so they disappeared, he then understood that it had only been one of them, he had been suffering from diplopia. Now we just had to squeeze to get rid of the creature so he does, this ghost will not escape, however much he tries to fight back.

Suddenly, Chiaki heard the other ghosts crying for him, they had come back, and they hadn't only come back, they tried to pull him away, they were trying to get him. He realized that they tried to lure him to drop his grip on their companion so that they could take him into the shadows. He refused, he took a firmer grip on the neck.

Then Chiaki felt that one of the ghosts left him and then he felt a soft thud against his head. He looked up, opened his eyes - and discovered that he was holding his hands very tight around Takeru's neck.


	2. Chapter 2

Genta tried desperately to make Chiaki's fingers drop their stranglehold on Takeru and behind Chiaki, Ryuu stood with a broken pillow that he continued to hit Chiaki in the head with until he awakened and dropped the grip. By then feathers were flying all over the room.

In shock Chiaki released Takeru's neck, which made both Genta and Takeru fall backwards onto the floor. What had happened? Had he attacked Takeru in his sleep? He must have done that. He looked at Takeru who still gasped for air on the floor.

The same second that Takeru and Genta landed on the floor after Chiaki let go of the grip, the light was turned on. All four of them turned around towards the door where they saw Mako who didn't look so very happy. She smiled a fake smile that none of them had seen on her, ever.

"I tried to warn you about this didn't I?" She said. It wasn't a question, they all knew that. But Ryuunosuke who thought Mako was a bit unfair still tried to explain himself.

"But ... we were attacked!" He had dreamt that he had been attacked too so it wasn't completely wrong, but he knew from the moment he said this words that it wasn't what Mako wanted to hear. She looked at Ryuu suspiciously and Ryuu suddenly became very aware that he was holding a broken pillow in his hand and that the entire room was covered in feathers.

"Attacked, you say?" Mako asked skeptically. "It looks more like a pillow fight to me! Do you know what time it is!"

When Mako mentioned the word "pillow fight" Chiaki suddenly got aware that his mouth was full of down and began to spit those out. Then Jii entered the room.

"What's going on!" Was the first thing he said, then he saw Chiaki who sat on the floor, spitting feathers. "Have you been fighting? Do you know what time it is?" He said angrily and walked in to the room where all four boys for some reason had decided to sleep this night. – a room where the floor was now completely filled with feathers. Jii glared at all four of them, they didn't say anything, they all just sat there looking guilty, they just couldn't find words – or at least they couldn't find words that sounded better than the words Ryuu had just tried to tell Mako. Ryuu biting his lip, looking desperately for an explanation that sounded better but even he gave up. This just wasn't the right time.

"Uh ... we ..."

"You shall sleep!" Jii cut of before Ryuu even had time to think of what to say.

"Shouldn't you sleep too?" Chiaki asked before he could stop himself. He hadn't meant anything, he hadn't even meant to sound funny. Jii wasn't the least bit impressed by that comment, and he immediately said what he thought about it.

"Well, that was my plan actually but with all this noise from here that's impossible. Not even a Gedoshu could sleep in this noise!"

A little later, the guys tries to sleep again - in the same room as before - the alternative was that they all went to their own room and tried to sleep there - alone. Even if some of them actually had been thinking about this idea no one dared to say it out loud, so in the end they picked out the only futon available in the room and then they tried to find place for everyone. They lay down with one another's feet parallel to each other's heads. That was the only way because Takeru refused to sleep with his head in the same direction as Chiaki. Genta and Ryuu felt the same so this was a great solution, whit that solution, none of them would be able to reach anyone's neck in sleep.

Chiaki, Genta and Ryuunosuke fell asleep pretty fast. Takeru on the other hand was in so much pain after Chiaki's treatment and he couldn't sleep. He had to go up to see how bad it was. Luckily for him he had chosen to lay with his head at the foot end so he could sneak away without risk to wake anyone. He did so and went to the bathroom where he knew there was a mirror. He went there to examine his neck. It didn't look good at all. He knew that he would have some ugly bruises by the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**02:40**

Takeru went back to the futon and laid down in the same place again. But just as he did this, he accidentally succeeded to kick Ryuu in his face.

Ryuunosuke sat up screaming in fear, and he didn't stop. He was shocked, something had touched him, in his face. Chiaki, Genta and Takeru immediately sat up and tried to calm him down. When Mako came in to them this time she looked, if possible, even more annoyed by them than she had the first time.

"What's going on this time then?"

"KOTOHA!" Ryuu screamed, "They have taken Kotoha ..." Just after he had yelled that out he realized that he had been dreaming again, Mako was standing in the door and didn't seem very happy.

Ryuu began talking incoherently while the other three continued their attempts to calm him down.

"There must be some kind of curse," Ryuu said, still half dreaming. "Everyone was so weird, they had boils everywhere ..." Ryuu exclaimed cowering. Then Mako had got enough.

"It's not a curse, it's you, Chiaki, Genta and Takeru who absolutely have to listen to Kotoha's ghost stories before going to sleep, and Kotoha is fine by the way, at least until I get my hands on her!"

**03:36  
**

Takeru had finally managed to fall asleep, it took a while because of the pain from the bruises that had begun to grow around his neck but eventually he got so tired that he succeeded to fall asleep. But at the same time Genta on the other hand began to sleep a little more uneasy.

**03:49  
**

"TAKE-CHAN!" All four of them sat up again, startled after more nightmares and because Genta had scared them by screaming. Genta gasped and stared at them with wide eyes. "It was just a dream. I dreamed that Kotoha was an infiltrating Gedoshu and that ... "He looked at Takeru," She had got Take-chan killed and Ryuu was next - I was the only one who knew about it but I wasn't able too speak so I couldn't warn you ".

Then Chiaki heard a sound from the hallway outside and jerked. Takeru had heard it too.

"Mako ..." They looked at each other for a second. "Pretend to sleep" Takeru whispered quickly whereupon all four lied down under the blankets and closed their eyes.  
Mako opened the door and looked at them. They seemed to sleep but she didn't believe that for a second. Still it seemed as a good idea to simply let them get away with it…this time.


	4. Chapter 4

**04:15  
**

Chiaki was still asleep but he moved from side to side in terror. "No, please!" He whined quietly, "no, don't do this ..." Chiaki didn't wake up, not Mako either because he wasn't that loud this time.

"NO!" This time Mako woke up, that scream could have woken someone in Australia up, she thought, and went up again. "NO STOP IT!" The voice shouted, this time they wouldn't get away with imagining that they could fool her they were still sleeping.

It wasn't Chiaki who were dreaming the worst nightmares this time, it was Takeru, Chiaki had woken up because of Takeru's yelling – just like everyone else and he had forgot about his own dreams. All three were still trying to wake him up when Mako came into the room – a few seconds after Mako Jii too entered the room.

Mako and Jii waited until it was quiet in the room.

"Okay, guys. What is it this time! "All four of them jumped up in surprise, they hadn't seen when Mako and Jii entered. Chiaki opened his mouth to say something but he just couldn't bring himself to do it so he closes his mouth again. At the same time, he knew that Mako is waiting for some answer. Takeru turned his head to say something in defense but was immediately forced to turn his head back again, by the pain.

"What is it Takeru" Mako asked, for the first time this night she was worried. Takeru, thought for a while about whether he should tell her the truth or not. He came to the conclusion that he had no choice. He would have to tell them sooner or later, just in case they got into a fight. Might as well get it over with.

"Chiaki tried to strangle me in his sleep!"

After that, of course, it didn't take long before Mako was over them again.

"YOU IDIOTS! This is what happens when you listen to one of Kotoha's ghost stories before going to sleep, you know it and yet you MUST continue to listening because you might get nightmares if you don't know the end. YOU DO NOT HEAR HOW IT SOUNDS? "

"Having nightmares is actually quite natural ..." Ryuunosuke tried, but he immediately wished that he hadn't said anything.

"NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T BEEN A BUNCH OF JERKS!" Mako Mako roared and picked up a pillow that were lying at her feet. While she spoke, she beat all of them in the head with the pillow as hard as she could. Mako finished this by throwing the pillow somewhere in the middle of their improvised Futon and then she walked towards the door. "And one more thing, if you wake me up one more time this night I'll make sure that you'll get some real nightmares. NOW DO YOU GO TO SLEEP! "


	5. Chapter 5

Jii followed Mako out of the room, apparently he thought that the guys had got enough for now, but they noticed that he was also very annoyed by them.

Ryuunosuke yawned. He was so tired he could sleep for a year but he didn't know if he dared to try to sleep again. He knew he would have more nightmares and he didn't want to know what Mako would do next time she came in to them. He looked at the others. All three of them seemed to be thinking the same thing. He wondered if he should suggest that they would all go to bed in their own rooms, but that idea stayed in his head. Just the thought of sleeping alone this night caused him to tremble.

"I need to drink some water," Chiaki mumbled and got up. Ryuu lit up.

"Maybe we should make some tea? That would calm our nerves "he said and followed Chiaki to the door. Takeru and Genta did the same. Now it was just one problem. To get to the kitchen, they must ... out into the dark corridor outside and who knew what lurked there..?

***

Chiaki swallowed, this didn't feel good at all. Although he knew that he used to walk in that corridor in daylight it felt horrible to be the one who stood first in line and the one who had to open the door, but he was first in line and had no choice. The other three stood behind him waiting and seemed to want to hide. Chiaki wanted somebody else to come up with the proposal, but now it's just like the situation. He raised a trembling hand to the door handle, but didn't dare to open it.

Eventually Ryuu shook his head. This was just ridiculous; he walked by Chiaki and opened the door, and gasped. The door made a very noisy sound.

"Okay, come" he said, but he didn't sound nearly as confident as he usually did, not even close.

None of them walked very fast through the house, since all four of them felt that they had to look more closely in every corner. After a while, they came to the kitchen and after Chiaki had lit the lamp, they felt at least relatively safe for the nightmare figures in Kotoha's tales. However, they knew that they were not safe for Mako.

Genta took out a teapot and boiled some water while the others tried to make it look like that they were choosing among the tea bags. For real, none of them saw which flavor the teas had, they were all too traumatized still but it was important for all of them that the others thought they had control of the situation.

But none of them succeed very well, Takeru noted that Chiaki had managed to choose the tea he disliked most – in fact he had told them that if he ever wanted to drink that flavor they could do whatever they needed to stop him – however, Takeru decided not to say anything. When Genta came with the water all of them just took a big blob of honey and sneaked back.

It actually felt a lot better when they had got something warm to drink. If it was because of the heat or the tea's calming effect, or just that they focused on something else than the fact that the house was too dark and the noises from outside they didn't know. Anyway, everyone thought that it felt a lot better when they crawled back into the blankets afterward. So far, none of them had dared to suggest that they would go to bed in their own rooms. Everyone had thought of the idea but no one dared suggest it.

After tea, they had all fallen asleep again pretty fast. And at first it seemed to be a relatively peaceful sleep.

But of course that was too good to last, after a while they all began moving restlessly in their sleep again.

**04:59****  
**  
Jii got up, he had barely slept at all since the last time he had been up watching the boys. He thought it was time for them to start having their nightmares again. He began to know these kids by now.

The sight that greeted him when he opened the door made him smile actually. Genta and Takeru had laid down parallel to each other side by side. Chiaki had his legs resting on Genta's legs and his head on Takeru's back. Ryuunosuke had for some reason ended up in the opposite side of the room. He now slept in a corner so that his body lay as an L against the walls.

Jii quietly opened the cabinet that stood in the other side of the room and picked out four blankets. The blankets they had picked out themselves, they had now been kicked off, rolled over and fallen asleep on, trying to get to them would just wake them up. Jii crept forward and put a blanket over each of them. Chiaki was the only one who responded, he muttered in his sleep but didn't wake up. In Jii's eyes he seemed very pleased anyway.

**06:11**

Ryuu woke up with a scream, he was covered in cold sweat and was breathing heavily. Trembling he sat up and pushed his knees closer to the body in a hug. After a few seconds later, he discovered that he had tears in his eyes.

He wiped them away and pulled the blanket Jii had given him closer around himself and then he got up and walked over to the other three, he had a sore back after lying directly on the floor. There was a little spot next Genta on the soft pad, where he lay down.

***  
Ryuu, Genta, Chiaki and Takeru did not know it but this would be the last nightmare that night ... almost...


	6. Chapter 6

**07:12**

Kotoha awakened by the rays of sun shining in her face. She sat up, stretched and yawned. It had been a wonderful night, she felt completely refreshed. Now she had only one thing on her mind ... breakfast.

She got up and jumped twice every two feet to the kitchen where she leapt to the refrigerator and took out the lovely, vitamin-rich orange juice. Then she dug out the biggest glass, poured the juice in it and drank it with a feeling that every sip made her stronger and more alert. It felt so good.

**07:30**

Mako's alarm clock rang. She sat up in bed and with an evil grin and turned it off, she looked at the clock. It had rung just the time she had wanted it to.

Kotoha sat out in the garden, munching on a sandwich when she saw Mako inside the house. Mako didn't seem very happy. Kotoha moved a little bit to see what Mako was carrying, it seemed heavy.

To her surprise, Kotoha saw that it was two buckets of water. Kotoha didn't know what to think.

Mako opened the door to the room where the boys had slept last night and went in with the two buckets of water.

"GET UP! You shall not think that you can keep me awake ALL night and then sleep in you lazy bastards, and the same goes for you "TAKE-CHAN" she finished by using Genta's nickname for Takeru so that he would understand that she was so annoyed that even a title wouldn't protect him this time.

Everyone was awake when Mako began yelling, but only Ryuu succeeded to move away quick enough to avoid the first bucket of water that was thrown over them. Genta and Takeru didn't even have a chance because Chiaki lay on top of them.

Mako looked at Ryuu with a murderous look, and as he could see what was going to happen to him as well – she did have another bucket of water after all - he ran towards the door.

Before he reached the hallway, he felt the icy-cold water over his back anyway. And he almost regret that he had jumped to the side. The other three had at least been sharing a bucket; he on the other hand, had got one on himslef.

Shivering, he turned into the room again. He knew that Mako would not leave anyone of them alone until she thought they had all got what they deserved, it was best to get it over with.

"Where is Kotoha?" Mako asked, still with dark evil eyes. "I'll make sure that the little storyteller is awake all day so that she simply cannot tell any stories for you tonight!"

At this time Kotoha have walked inside and heard it all. She and Jii walks into the room.

"Neesan, what's wrong?" Mako suddenly hears behind. She turns around to see Kotoha who… isn't even tired and as that wasn't bad enough, the little sunbeam seemed to have had been sleeping very well last night.

Kotoha watched everyone to get some idea about what had happened, Takeru, Ryuu, Chiaki and Genta were all covered with water, and they all looked very guilty over something.

Mako growled to herself and left the room.

***  
**22:13 - Next night**

Ryuunosuke and Chiaki put away the training swords that they had been practicing with to make Chiaki stronger. Then they went into the house and were Takeru and Genta is playing a board game. The doctor had forbidden Takeru to train because of the bruises on his neck so he and Genta had spent the evening together inside. Ryuunosuke and Chiaki watched them as they finished their game - then they run straight all the way to the Kotoha who was sitting in the next room reading a book.

"Kotoha!"

"Yes!"

"What story are you going to tell us tonight?"


End file.
